Hey Everyone,
Thanks soooo much for all your prayers and for the notes of encouragement that many of you wrote me today. I know that God is in control but it is also good to be reminded of that TRUTH — so thanks for telling me what I should have already been believing — I had a hard 24 hours but kept speaking truth to myself — that God is sovereign and is not surprised by this problem — and finally what I knew in my Head is now comforting my HEART.
Moncho and I went to the port today just to make sure that the bus really was sent back and it really was too late to get the things off of the bus. We had a profitable trip because we found out EXACTLY what we could do. The bus could not enter under any circumstances and so we will not try to send it back after it returns to Houston. The shipping agency though is at blame because they made two mistakes which cost us our $2,500 in shipping: (1) they informed us of the wrong date of the arrival of the bus (it actually arrived on Tuesday, not Wednesday and here in Honduras you have to BE there on the date the vehicles arrive; (2) they did not send us the papers (title, etc.) in a timely manner and we still have not received them even today, and they would not have permitted us to take our things without those papers. I am going to ask some of my lawyer friends to make a call to the shipping company in Houston and see if they will not take responsiility for their error and let us send the contents of the bus back at no additional cost to us. I really believe that is fair because had we known the right day and had our papers, we could have taken all the contents of the bus at no cost in taxes. Please pray that the lawyers can do a little “persuasion” on our behalf and also for the friends in Houston that have already done so much and now we will need them to go retrieve the bus and arrange to have the contents put in a container on the boat. This still could all happen in the next month and I hope that it can be done soon.
The next questions we had answered were about the van. It can only be brought in when we get our papers for Destino officially recorded and that is going to take several more months. I think it will be better if we sell the van and the bus and just try to buy a bus here in Honduras for about $5,000 or less. In the meantime, our biggest need is to have some kind of transportation. Any vehicle that comes in other than a bus (car or van) must be a 1995 or newer. The shipping cost has already been paid in Mobile, Alabama, so if anyone can ask around and see if someone could donate a van or pick-up (preferably diesel) that is at least a 1995 for a tax deduction, or whatever, then please let me know. There were several churches that were talking about a “project” to collect money for Destino — so maybe that is something a church might provide. I know that God will provide whatever we need in His timing, but we will have to have some kind of transportation before we can open the home. The home is too far out of town to not have a vehicle. Thanks for all of your prayers for all of this.
In the meantime, our biggest frustration (other than not having transportation) was not having electricity until the generator on the bus could arrive. I talked to Moncho today though and we can buy an excellent used generator here that will provide enough power for the one house and we can use it until we get the commercial-sized generator from Houston again. We will not be wasting money though because we need a smaller generator to be able to move around when we are working on other parts of the property in the future. The generator will cost $600 and we have spent that much renting a generator for various groups over the past year — so I feel really good about going ahead and purchasing the used one and being able to move ahead with opening the home on time. Please pray for wisdom in all these things. I appreciate SOOO much your prayers for me and please pray I will grow in faith and not take so long to adjust when a disappointment comes my way. I want to learn to respond IMMEDIATELY in faith when something happens and trust God absolutely that He is in charge and is not caught off guard and will do all things in His PERFECTION. He is ALWAYS good and faithful.
I love you all so much and praise God for your support of me and Destino del Reino.
Love in HIS grace,
Rhonda
